File this one under "Not really surprising". According to Virtual Worlds News, Joe Miller, VP of Platform Technology and Development at Linden Lab, told Linux.com that the company is more focussed on opening its protocols than open sourcing its server code:
"'What we are focused on is documenting a set of protocols that will provide interoperability. So we don't think it makes sense to open the back-end code to the Second Life Grid without establishing protocols for interoperability,' answered Miller.
'Our focus right now is on documenting open protocols that we will then create working examples around and publish as Open Source projects,' Miller continued. 'We have running today a working example of Second Life servers running behind IBM's firewall in a way that allows them to participate with the main Second Life Grid.'"
The process of open sourcing the server code for Second Life was always going to be a difficult one. Not only does the company have a lot of potentially-competing interests to balance, it has to ensure that the corporate customers who will form the backbone of sim buyers in the future will be happy.
